WHAT IS STYLE?Style is the combination of literary techniques a writer uses to communicate his or her substance.

Tone: the attitude of the speaker toward the subject -- the first thing to look for is the for a pattern and make a category. Its the emotional quality of the piece of literature. How the speaker feels.

(shift): tone shifts occur with a change. It could be that the character has an epiphany or certain event. It could be a shift from stanza to stanza. When you sense tone shift mark it. mark it. mark it. Make an annotation!

*Remember to look for the change in tone. Always mention the tone shift when discussing poetry or prose. Recognize irony! DIDLS Some Very Basic Options For Describing Tone:

• Authoritative:
• Emotive: is intended to cause emotion
• Pathos: the emotion of the piece is the pathos of the piece: bitter, threatening, freedom,
• Didactic: preachy, instructional, paternalistic
• Objective: emotionless and separate
• Ornate: decorative, intricate, detailed, complex
• Scholarly: factual, formal, analytical, intellectual
• Plain: basic, bland, simple, elementary
• Scientific: emotional-less or without human factor

Diction: Consider connotation, place, and time when analyzing diction. Also, never say "the author uses diction." Say "the author uses *blank* diction. Describe what type of diction with examples from the text. Diction is word choice and the voice of the piece. It determines the level of formality (high, middle, or low).

• archaic language: formal, reserved,
• formal language: Think Dombey and Son. There is formal diction during a situation that should flow with emotion. (quite ironic)
• colloquial language: slang, may capture a time period or region (Like "There Eyes Were Watching God)
• ambiguous language is uncertain and vague
• inflated language: exaggerated and makes the simple seem complex
• satirical language: questions morality, attacks human vices
• effusive language: overflowing, gushing, emotional speech, sentimental

Selection of Detail- What the author chooses to mention (or not mention)

• verisimilitude: what the narrator says is true and our perception of the truth based on that.

Imagery- creates tone, a realistic setting, and places the reader in the story

(also called "selection of detail") When you start to recognize feelings in a passage, STOP and pinpoint why.

• auditory: hear it
• visual: see it
• gustatory: taste it
• tactile: touch it
• olfactory: smell it
• kinetic: move it
• organic: natural
• dark and light:
• juxtaposed:

Figurative Language:

• metaphor: comparing something that's hard to understand with something that can be easily understood. Must "so what" the metaphor
• simile: Same as metaphor using like, as, or resembles.
• hyperbole: illuminates some truth through gross exaggeration
• understatement: says less than what the situation warrants to reveal truth.
• personification: giving life like qualities to nonhuman things.
• synecdoche: calling a "boat" a "sail" ; using a part to explain a whole. Ex: "a pair of hands" instead of a worker
• metonymy: calling a "military officer" a "brass"; using words to stand in for other words.
• paradox (oxymoron): juxtaposing two things that appear unrelated.
• apostrophe: when you address something not living.

Point of View:

• First Person: Like in Jane Eyre where an "I" voice is telling the story. The narrator can be unreliable.
• Second Person (Beginning of ATKM)
• Third Person: told by a third person removed from the plot
• Omniscient: God-like. You get into the thoughts of each person. Narrator knows how the story will end
• Stream of Consciousness: frantic state of mind, reads as thoughts
• Alternating: multiple viewpoints in one passage
• Narrator Reliability: always think about it. Especially in first person texts

Organization (including use of time):

• narrative structure:
• flashback:
• framed story:
• formal:
• informal:
• sonnet forms: Petrarchean (8 lines of problem / 6 lines of solution) or Shakespearean( 14 lines 14 lines 14 lines with the meaning at the
• villanelle: Is cyclical and relating to the meaning of the poem. Includes "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop and "Mad girls love song" by Silvia Plath (I think I made you up inside my head)

Literary Terms Analyzing Contrast

think of JIP (Juxtoposition, Irony, Paradox)

• IRONY-- A discrepancy between appearance and reality
• Verbal Irony--- a character says something different from what he/ she means. Speech is not always meant to be taken literally. Look for underlying truth. For example, the parenthesis in "One Art" by Elisabeth Bishop tells that the four prior stanzas were a fa
• Situational Irony- the unexpected happens
• Dramatic Irony- Example: Oedipus Rex. Every single quote was irony. We knew what he couldn't know until the very end.
• Oxymoron-"alone in a crowded room" "deafening silence"
• Paradox- "we live in what kills us" in Julia, in deep water. Metaphors that reveal truth
• Juxtaposition- Place two things side by side. In Jane Eyre, Bonnte juxtaposes Jane and nature.

Sound (or musicality descriptors): talk about it if it enhances the meaning

• euphony: pleasant, peaceful
• cacophony: harsh discordant sounds
• smooth diction: gentle and uninterrupted
• harsh diction: interruptions, darkness
• when a poem has no rhyme scheme think of musicality descriptors

(Try not say “flowing.”)

Sound Devices:

• alliteration:
• consonance:
• assonance:
• onomatopoeia:

Rhyme:

• formal:
• informal:
• traditional:
• unconventional:
• absence of:

Is it free verse?

Meter:

• formal:
• informal:
• traditional:
• unconventional:
• absence of:

Is it free verse?

Allusion:

• historical:
• literary:
• Biblical:
• mythological:

Also, within the Greek tragic tradition be aware of ideas such as:

• dramatic unity:
• hubris:
• catharsis:
• Shakespearean:
• pop:

Repetition

• words
• images
• structural
• grammatical
• rhetorical (i.e. anaphora, etc.)

Sentence Types

• loose:
• periodic:
• parallel:

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WHAT IS SUBSTANCE?

Substance is the meaning or theme of a work. Substance is the "significance" that you are "So Whatting." Substance is made more powerful by connecting to the universal or archetypal.

Theme vs. Motif:

Allegory/Parable: extended metaphor, Intended to teach, is didactic through the theme

Universal/Archetypal Characters:

• Epic Hero: goes on a quest and grows up (spiritual awakening)
• Tragic Hero: Has a fatal flaw. Hero brings his own downfall usually due to HUBRIS (pride)
• Byronic Hero: ROCHESTER or Batman. Knight in dark dented armor
• AntiHero: Dirty harry
• Outcast: MOST POPULAR (Jane Eyre) has the best morals and receives the sympathy and pity
• Scapegoat: gets the blame
• Stranger in the Village:

Universal/Archetypal Women:

• earth mother: nurturing (Mrs. Fairfax)
• temptress: Seductive and brings down the hero's downfall (Delilah)
• soul-mate: Lover and romantic union
• platonic ideal: based on the virgin Mary and is completely non-sexual
• maiden: the virgin
• mother: biological
• crone: can be the witch associated with evil and darkness

Universal/Archetypal Images:

• Colors: red is passion and sex. green is envy and prosperity and youth. white is pure. black is death
• Numbers: 3 is magical. 7,12
• Water: may mean redemption and rebirth and baptism of some sort.
• Yin and Yang (Juxtaposition): Light and Dark: Knowledge and Ignorance
• Nature and Garden and tree: life, growth, knowledge,
• Tree: life knowledge

Universal/Archetypal Plots:

• Coming-of-Age (Bildungsroman):Jane Eyre, Poisonwood Bible
• Mistaken Identity/Farce:
• Renewal of Life: a new beginning
• Quest/Journey: the epic hero's quest
• Spiritual epiphany: Brave New World?

Novel types:

• Bildungsroman:
• Dystopian:
• Utopian:
• Epistolary:
• Gothic:
• Historical:
• Novella:
• Novel of manners:
• Social novel:

GENDER, RACE, AND CLASS AS CONTEMPORARY "OUTCAST" THEMES

• Issues of Gender:
• Issues of Race:
• Issues of Class:

Other Important Themes:

• Love: drives a characters actions

• Religion: either comforts or oppresses

• Mortality: life and death. We are closer to death today than ever before

• Reality:

• Sanity:

• Carpe Diem: Seize the day. the cakes....wink wink

• Pastoral: Idyllic. Nature is rejuvenation. Leisure

Exploring Literary "Substance" Through Philosophical Thought

• Romanticism (vs. Classicism vs. Realism):
• Realism:
• Modern Realism:
• Magical Realism:
• Gothicism:
• Modernism:
• Postmodernism:
• Existentialism:
• Absurdism:
• Feminism:

Literary Theories Of Which College Board Readers Are Aware

• Feminist:
• Psychoanalytic:
• Marxist:
• New Historicism:
• Formalism:
• Reader-Response: